"These then are my last words to you. Be not afraid of life. Believe that life is worth living and your belief will help create the fact."-William James

I miss you all! Unfortunately, due to my tendencies to procrastinate, I am already significantly behind on things I need to get done this week and won’t be writing a full post. However, I did not want to leave you quote-less on Sunday so here’s one I found that I liked:

“It doesn’t interest me what you do for a living. I want to know what you ache for, and if you dare to dream of meeting your heart’s longing. It doesn’t interest me how old you are. I want to know if you will risk looking like a fool for love, for your dream, for the adventure of being alive. It doesn’t interest me what planets are squaring your moon. I want to know if you have touched the center of your own sorrow, if you have been opened by life’s betrayals or have become shriveled and closed from fear of further pain. I want to know if you can sit with pain, mine or your own, without moving to hide it or fade it, or fix it.”-Oriah Mountain Dreamer

I know it’s been a while since I have posted and I apologize. Things have been crazy hectic, but I will be getting back into the swing of things and trying to post more regularly. One of my friends shared this quote with me….loved it so much I had to share it with all of you:

“Achievement is built on challenge. Achievement is built on setbacks and frustrations. Achievement is built when conditions are difficult, and when there’s no guarantee of success. And achievement is indeed built, for it is not inevitable. Achievement happens because people choose to make it happen. And as you build it, achievement builds you.”
-Ralph Marston

“Feelings are not supposed to be logical. Dangerous is the man who has rationalized his emotions.”-David Borenstein

“There can be no knowledge without emotion. We may be aware of a truth, yet until we have felt its force, it is not ours. To the cognition of the brain must be added the experience of the soul.”-Arnold Bennett

Good evening SQers! Hope your week was fantastic and that you took risks which you might not have ordinarily considered. This topic is something that I have been considering writing about for a couple of weeks now. Also, I had a talk with one of my friends last night about this very topic so I figured now might be as good of a time as any to discuss it.

People love rivalries and competition. I personally love to hate the Patriots and Dolphins as a die-hard Jets fan, but my favorite rivalry of all time has nothing to do with sports. My favorite rivalry of all time is logic/fact vs. emotion or to put in into “organ-based” terms the brain vs. the heart. One of the most classic and never-ending rivalries, it is always a great topic worth discussing and worth observing.

In my experience, most people can easily identify with one of the two sides. They are inherently more logical, analyze, rationalize and reason. On the opposite end of the spectrum, there are those who identify with being more emotional and intuitive. There are some obvious scenarios and careers where particular strengths prove to be more useful than others, but outside of that the question remains..which is better?

Being logical proves to be more useful in situations that require facts, structure, causal relationships, deduction and a large capacity of knowledge. Being more intuitive and emotional proves to be more useful in situations with understanding people, observing emotions, building relationships and in creative endeavors. Ultimately, though one might have a more dominating influence upon your life, you need both. People who have both strengths in both areas are balanced and extremely blessed. Neither is more important than the other and as the above quote says they really go hand in hand.

What I’m trying to say is that despite what your preconceived notions might be about the respective merits of each, they are both essential to living a whole and complete life. Recognize the importance of both and their capabilities of contributing to your life.

“Chance is perhaps the pseudonym of God when he does not wish to sign his work.”-Anatole France

Good morning SQers! I know it’s been a while since I have written, but we finally have internet again in my apartment so you can expect more regular posts from now on. Aside from posting, I have had quite the few first weeks being back at school. Hope you all are settling into fall and your routines well.

I think that the subject of this week’s post builds off another one of my posts from earlier: The Best Kind of Surprise and I know I have written about risk before. I consider myself to be a fairly kind and relatively sweet person despite what my friends (who play witness to my more sarcastic side) might think. Yet, that being said I am by no means perfect and subject to judging just as much as everyone else. When I do develop an opinion about something, I tend to stubbornly cling to it and there can seem like there is little hope of changing my mind. Can I change my mind and opinions? Yes but it does take a while. Sometimes even at my own expense. Being aware of our opinions and using our likes/dislikes can be useful in allowing us to create a framework to live by, but just the same it limits us. We live so dutifully within that framework that we are extremely ignorant to all that exists outside of it.

Rarely do we ever realize how trapped we are until we find ourselves victims of the same pattern repeating the same mistakes over and over again. Of course by then it is more of a last resort than a premature step. Instead of waiting for that to happen, we need to make more of a conscious effort to strive to live outside of the framework. I am not suggesting that each of you go out and take up activities like sky-diving and bungee jumping…just that you open your eyes more often. Be more aware and conscious of the options around you..not just career-wise…in everything. Take a risk or a gamble that you might not have ordinarily considered. Taking a chance on something you previously would have never considered might be the very thing which changes your life.Make an effort this week to not judge as much and to give things/people/events a chance and the benefit of the doubt.Progress and good things come from breaking the habit.

No fancy-pants musical choice this week. Just a dedication to my parents.

“You don’t really understand human nature unless you know why a child on a merry-go-round will wave at his parents every time around – and why his parents will always wave back.” ~William D. Tammeus

“Children begin by loving their parents; as they grow older they judge them; sometimes they forgive them.” ~Oscar Wilde

Good afternoon SQers! I know it’s been a few weeks since I have posted a new SQ post and I apologize. I was just so exhausted when I came home from my service trip last week. How have all of your weekends been? Mine has been quite busy doing last-minute shopping and packing preparing to head back to the city this week. Despite how hectic it might have been, I would still call the weekend productive in more than one aspect especially since I had a long, much overdue talk with my parents Friday night. In the end, some things got resolved and not others, but I feel much better and have a new-found respect for my parents and all that it takes to be a parent.

In our childhood, our knowledge is limited to what our parents teach us. It is only after we grow older that we begin to form our own judgement and stray outside of the bubble we grew up in. We form our own preferences, interests and dreams. We strive to develop ourselves increasingly as individuals often at the expense of the person we once were. As an integral part of our past, parents occasionally take the brunt of the blame during that transitory period.

Is lashing out at our parents the best way to cope with problems? Probably not, but from the perspective of a child…it is difficult to remember that. Our parents mainly become annoying/naggers/naysayers/pessimistic/insert-your-negative-adjective-of-choice-here. Yet, what we forget is that for the most part that most of what they do is meant to come from a good place. They watch us mature from teeny infants to mature adults trying to make the best decisions to live the best life possible. It is their job to play the bad guy sometimes even if it makes you resent them because in the big picture it’s all for you. From their perspective it is hard to let go, let their child become independent and live their own lives. They long for the easier days when their kids were infants and everything was simplified.

I may not be qualified to share my opinion on this subject seeing as I am not a parent. However, I feel it’s a difficult job…comes with no instructions, subject to change at any moment, long hours, lots of love and flexibility. So if as an adult you consider yourself an exemplary human being before you go and pat yourself on the back..thank your parents and tell them how much you love them. They deserve a hand for the job they did in raising you and probably don’t hear it enough. Personally, for my parents...they did an excellent job and I hope that when I have kids someday that I can be half as amazing as a parent as they both were.

“Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs even though checkered by failure, than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy nor suffer much because they live in the gray twilight that knows neither victory nor defeat.” -Theodore Roosevelt

“I’m in competition with myself and I’m losing.”-Roger Waters

Good morning SQers! I apologize for your delayed post this week. Happy August!

Competition from an evolutionary standpoint is what drives change and progress. The evolutionary principle carries over into our everyday lives as we compete for jobs, sometimes for affection and some for sport. Regardless of how you might feel about competition it is one of those facets of life that nobody really escapes.

It has its good side. Surrounding yourself with competition can truly bring out the best in you. It forces you to inadvertently become extremely self-aware and to step your game up to match the level of your peers. It can,if you let it, be the invisible hand that guides you pushing you to never settle and seek improvement. It also has its not-so-pretty side. It can become utterly overwhelming and consume you to the point where you become obsessed with your competitors forgetting about yourself.

As always with the beautiful dichotomies that I illustrate, it never is that simple. Competition can be both, neither or something else altogether. Being an active participant in your own life, you hold the power to decide to what degree you let the competition in your life affect you. In my opinion, on the whole competition ultimately proves to be a good thing. Without competition, we become complacent and settle rather than staying alert and active. However, it is important to remember that whether you are competing with one other person or a hundred, that only one of them really matters and that’s you.

You yourself are the most important competitor. At the end of the day all that matters is what you think of yourself and whether you want to change. Next time competition gets overwhelming…remember that. Use it to your knowledge to constantly strive to make yourself better.

That’s all for now. Have a great 2 weeks since I will be away next week.

I’m going to streamline my usual posts into giving you all just a nice midweek quote to power you through the rest of the week. It’s a good outlook on how to live life whether or not you believe in God.

“If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives; be kind anyway. If you are successful, you will win some false friends and true enemies; succeed anyway. If you are honest and frank, people may cheat you; be honest and frank anyway. If you find serenity and happiness, they may be jealous; be happy anyway. The good you do today, people will often forget tomorrow; do good anyway… You see, in the final analysis, it is between you and God; it was never between you and them anyway.”

Why Sunday Quotes?

This idea originally came to me when I was going through a difficult time and needed to find a way to deal with things. I started to look for a positive quote at the start of every week that I ended up writing on a post-it note and keeping on my desk to motivate & get me through the week. It usually would reflect whatever was on my mind at the time. I've always been a quotes and lyrics girl so it came naturally and sort of evolved into a weekly tradition. I started sharing my quotes with a few of my friends and figured it would just be easier to turn it into a blog to be able to share with everyone. So enjoy =)